We started our second year with a BANG, that’s for sure! Thank you all so much for coming to celebrate our 1st birthday with us on Sunday! We had so much fun!
The Venue A HUGE shout out to South Slope Community Center in North Liberty for hosting this event! If you are looking for a place to host an event, we highly recommend this space! We had MORE than enough room for all of our guests, food, and vendors, and the room was so nice and clean. Super comfy chairs, a great stage area for making announcements, and super convenient for serving food with their full kitchen!
The Food (and drinks!) O
ne word: yum. Special thanks to Falbo’s Pizza for providing all of our guests with SO many different varieties of their delicious menu items. Along with the pizza, one the biggest hits was their homemade Ranch dressing. If you haven’t tried it yet, make a plan to go there TONIGHT for dinner! Seriously! Guests enjoyed their pizza alongside a complimentary glass of wine, courtesy of Cedar Ridge Winery. With a red and a white to choose from, we heard some great feedback on both, and so many moms have told us how rare it is for them to have the opportunity sit around a table with their fellow moms and enjoy a glass of wine. That means so much. {And a big shout out to our bartenders, Patti and Barb, for keeping it real and dancing the entire night. Quite the entertainment, for sure!}
And what is a birthday party without cake and ice cream? The ladies from Molly’s Cupcakes and Yotopia were swarmed by the hungry mamas looking for some sugar, and they delivered big time. It was SO awesome to see the cupcakes with our ICMB logo on them, and those individual froyo cups (with toppings!) were amazing. Yum, yum, yum. So happy to share two of the best dessert places in our community with our guests!
Our Amazing Vendors
I
t Works The ladies at the It Works table were having so much fun sharing “that crazy wrap thing” (their words, not ours!) with the ladies at the party. It was so great to learn more about these products and see the amazing results they can produce! And one lucky guest went home with a free body wrap…can’t get any better than that!
Mary Kay Arica and Emily, our two Mary Kay reps, were quite the popular ladies. They did such a nice job giving our party guests mini make-overs and also educating them about skin care and how to properly apply their make-up. We love Mary Kay products, and we were so happy to send our guests home with $10 MK bucks in their swag bags! Thank you ladies!
Sweet Feet Yoga As always, Dana never ceases to amaze us with her ability to calm us and remind us to enjoy the moment. After a whirlwind of fun, chatting, and raffle prizes, ICMB cofounder Sara joined some of the ICMB writers and some of our brave guests for an awesome, relaxing yoga session with Sweet Feet Yoga. Many of the women had never done yoga before, and it was so great to watch them learn and experience it for the first time. Plus, our very own writer Meghann assisted Dana in giving us the very best intro class possible. So glad that the dress code was yoga pants!
Groovy Katz Salon Amy and the ladies from Groovy Katz had quite the booth as well! Their table was so creatively decorated, and the moms were lining up to get their hair done! The stylists also graciously offered consultations and were so fun to chat with. If you’re looking for a place to get your hair done in the Iowa City area, look no further! Thanks girls!
Massage Heights Needless to say, there was a mad dash for those two massage chairs! We are so grateful to the ladies of Massage Heights for doing so many massages in just a short time! We honestly don’t know how you do it; with that many women fighting for that seat, your hands must have felt like they would fall off! In all seriousness, though, you need to check out Massage Heights at Iowa River Landing. It is breathtakingly beautiful, with super-private, super-quiet massage rooms and the friendliest staff around. Check it out soon, and book yourself a massage for Mother’s Day! Why not, right?!
…And More! Special thanks to Anthony Entertainment for keeping the party hoppin’ with some great tunes. Although there was no dance floor, we did see quite a few ladies dancing in their seats (and the bartenders behind the bar, too!). We all know how the right music can make an event even better! Thanks for helping out with that! Once again, Dana at Lite Rite Photography has shown her incredible talent for capturing the moments of our events. All of the photos in this post are courtesy of Lite Rite, and be sure to watch our Facebook page for more to come soon! Be sure to check for photos of yourself and your friends, and share them with your friends as well! Thanks Dana! {Extra shout outs to Celebration Linens with their BEAUTIFUL table linens (you can choose from a wide variety of colors!), Per Mar Security, and Expert Janitorial Services for helping our event go smoothly and beautifully! Much appreciated!}
Swag, Giveaways, & Raffle
As always, the highlight for many was entering to win raffle prizes and watching the smiles, laughs, and CARTWHEELS of the winners! {yes, cartwheels!} We must admit, we had some pretty great prizes this time around. Special thanks to all of our sponsors who provided giveaways and raffle prizes: Itsy Bitsy Boutique Z’Mariks Synergy Gymnastics Freshly Picked It Works Massage Heights Groovy Katz Iowa Artisans Gallery Chad The Not So Bad *For everyone who missed their chance at winning raffle prizes this time around, we were happy to send you home with a goodie bag AND a swag bag at our Birthday Party! Special thanks to the University of Iowa Community Credit Union for providing the bags, and for the following sponsors who contributed to our swag this time around: West Music, Synergy Gymnastics, Yotopia, Peter Rabbit Organics, Mary Kay, Falbo’s, Lite Rite Photography, Chad The Not So Bad, The Pampered Chef, It Works!, National Dance Academy, and Usborne Books.
The People!
Our team: Where would we be without you? ICMB is all about community, and we are forever grateful for our Contributing Writers. As always, they were welcoming you all at the door, enjoying the evening with you, and helping us out wherever possible. Thank you so much to our beautiful ICMB girls! Oh, and what’s that you say? You love our t-shirts and you’d like to know where you can get one of your own? Well you are in luck! Due to popular demand, we now have these adorable “Iowa love” t-shirts for sale! Please contact us at contact (at) iowacitymomsblog (dot) com if you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt!
A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU, our beautiful guests! There’s no party without guests, and we are continually humbled by all of you who come out to celebrate with us. This past year has been so amazing, getting to know all of you and watching this community of moms grow and flourish. We can’t wait for year 2! Thank you SO MUCH!
